New Chicken Breeds and Hybrids Survey

One of the first questions people ask when they’re thinking about raising chickens is, “What kind of chickens should I get?”

That question leads to more questions. Do you want to keep chickens primarily for eggs or for pest control? How much space do you have? What are the temperature extremes in your location? Do you want your chickens to hatch eggs and raise chicks? What color eggs do you prefer?

After you’ve answered those (and other) questions, you’ll want to match your needs and desires with the breed or breeds that meet your criteria. But what are the characteristics of each breed? You can research many breeds, but how do you know the information is reliable?

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Although we understand that there are significant variations within breeds of chickens, each breed has a few characteristics that are common to almost all birds of that breed. And we think that some of the information about certain chicken breeds and hybrids might be outdated, or even wrong. So, we’ve developed a survey to determine the characteristics of breeds of chickens. Our goal is to publish an article summarizing the survey in the April/May 2010 issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS magazine.

If you have experience raising chickens, we’d like you to take the Survey of Chicken Breeds and Hybrids. Depending on your experience, it may take 15 or 20 minutes to complete. You can start by clicking here.

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